BPW on the<br>New 940 Montreal (2006)
"The Last Angry Man"
BPW Talk Show on the New 940 Montreal
Dear Friends,
I am pleased to report that I have been invited by Radio 940 AM Montreal to host a special series of innovative and incisive talk shows Sundays from noon to two.
It will not be ordinary talk radio. 940 AM has taken the bold initiative of allowing us to bring public advocacy to the airwaves. The same vigor and resolve that the Institute has brought to bear to help the hungry, the homeless, the victims of racism, vulnerable seniors, and all those put upon by the mindless tyranny of state bureaucracy will now be taken to another level. Through its national alliances, the Institute has shown that citizen coalitions can deliver solutions to suffering that the false pieties used by our elected officials to explain their inactions do not.
Our journal, Barricades, gave our work a national press voice. Now, thanks to 940, we will have an electronic media voice.
But this will not be merely an indulgence in talking the talk. We will walk the walk. We will bring on air many of the most compelling personalities you will hear anywhere. But not just to pontificate. These guests, many of whom work with the Institute, are among the most effective social activists and guardians of the public interest in the country. They will bring to bear their experience and assets to guide, advise and intercede on behalf of the real needs of real people.
There comes a time when people get tired. Tired of being victims of injustice, neglect and unearned suffering. You all know people like this. I want to hear about them. I want to hear from them. I want to hear from you. And to you I pledge that we will not just hear, but listen, and engage in ardent advocacy to get real solutions to real problems.
This will be talk radio as you’ve never heard it before. We will speak truth to power and in so doing will empower all our listeners. An empowerment that will help them turn away from Canadians’ tragic self-doubt driven by a jealousy of others’ self-belief that has caused so many to surrender the independence of their individual consequence to the narrow prejudices of statocratic dictate. Effective advocacy is a two-way street. It is as much about demanding responsible citizenship as it is about defending citizens’ rights. As Bertrand de Jouvenal wrote so well, “A nation of sheep is bound to produce a government of wolves.”
All this we pledge and more. You will hear none of the political correctness that has rendered so many in this land so senseless. What you will get is hard hitting analysis and discussion of the issues that affect our everyday lives. Answers for the real world. We will prepare you for the week ahead. But with a bottom line of unconventional wisdom on the people and stories in the news.
This show will remind Canadians that the “Just Society” which people of goodwill seek to build, has not yet found full expression in the social contract between governors and governed. It will remind us that the less powerful are no less human and the less privileged no less worthy of compassion. It will remind us of the promise of a society loyal to the warm glow of conscience and not to the icy frost of indifference.
The causes and cases we champion will be guided by simple principles as old as the scriptures and as fresh as the Charter. When we hear of wrongs, we will try to right them; when we hear of suffering, we will try to heal it; when we hear of injustice, we will try to stop it.
This I believe. Public advocacy, in this forum, at this time, in this land can help us do better. Do better than merely surviving by running between the raindrops; do better than meekly accepting a society that dares not care; do better than mutely witnessing governments that can no longer tell right from wrong.
Radio is still the most intimate, immediate and interactive of electronic media. I plan to make the most of it. The name chosen by 940 for the program says it all. “The Last Angry Man”. I hope to do justice to the name and to our listeners. I will not always calm you with what you want to hear; but I will always strengthen you with what you need to know.
My sincerest thanks to you all.
BPW
